Buttigieg heads to East Palestine, Ohio, as probe of train derailment continues

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg heads to East Palestine, Ohio, Thursday, as the National Transportation Safety Board is expected to release the initial results of its investigation into the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous substances. 

The 38-car train that crashed Feb. 3 has sparked serious health and environmental concerns for the area’s residents, who have expressed frustration over the slowness of the federal government’s response to the crisis. While he’s in East Palestine, Buttigieg will meet with residents and receive an update on the NTSB’s  investigation. 

Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Amit Bose and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration Deputy Administrator Tristan Brown will be joining Buttigieg on the ground. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan has visited East Palestine. 

“As the secretary said, he would go when it is appropriate and wouldn’t detract from the emergency response efforts,” a Department of Transportation spokesperson said Wednesday. “The secretary is going now that the EPA has said it is moving out of the emergency response phase and transitioning to the long-term remediation phase. His visit also coincides with the NTSB issuing its factual findings of the investigation into the cause of the derailment and will allow the secretary to hear from USDOT investigators who were on the ground within hours of the derailment to support the NTSB’s investigation.”

In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, Buttigieg said he didn’t visit East Palestine sooner because he wanted to give the NTSB and emergency workers space to do their jobs.

“I have followed the normal practice of transportation secretaries in the early days after a crash, allowing NTSB to lead the safety work and staying out of their way,” he said. “But I am very eager to have conversations with people in East Palestine about how this is impacted them.”

Buttigieg’s trip comes one day after former President Trump visited the town. Trump praised the local officials for helping in “an hour of need,” before blasting the Biden administration’s response as a “betrayal.” When asked about the fact that Buttigieg hadn’t already traveled to East Palestine, Trump said, “He should have been here a long time ago.”

The village’s residents, too, have been calling on Buttigieg or the president to visit. 

“Where is Pete Buttigieg? Where’s he at?” one attendee asked East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway, a Republican, during a Feb. 15 town hall, according to a video taken by CBS affiliate WOIO CBS in Ohio. 

“I don’t know,” Conaway responded. 

In an appearance on Fox News on Monday Conaway said that in light of the fact that the president has not visited East Palestine since the derailment, Mr. Biden’s trip to Ukraine came as the “biggest slap in the face.”

Jacob Rosen contributed to this report